PERSONALITY THEORY AND
ASSESSMENT
Who and Why We Are…
PERSONALITY THEORY AND
ASSESSMENT
• Personality includes the unique pattern of
psychological and behavioral characteristics that
distinguishes each of us from everyone else.
Personality characteristics are relatively stable
and enduring, often developed in childhood and
affect the way we think, act, feel and behave.
Individual personality patterns are both
consistent and stable and unique and distinctive.
There are five main approaches to the study of
personality, each with its own basic assumptions
and methods for measuring personality.
PERSONALITY THEORY AND
ASSESSMENT
• The five main approaches we will review are the
PSYCHODYNAMIC, HUMANISTIC,
BEHAVIORAL, TRAIT and
BIOPSYCHOLOGICAL theories including their
ideas on how personality, motivation and overt
behavior patterns develop over time. Each
theory also explores how one becomes
productive and self-fulfilled or nonproductive and
maladjusted and develops a theory for treatment
of mental disorders.
Personality Reflections
PSYCHODYNAMIC MODEL (AKA
FREUD’S TRIPARTITE THEORY)
• PSYCHODYNAMIC theories emphasize
the interplay of UNCONSCIOUS MENTAL
PROCESSES in determining human
thought, behavior and feelings. It is a
CONFLICT APPROACH that assumes
that opposing forces within an individual
are constantly clashing.
Sigmund Freud
PSYCHODYNAMIC MODEL (AKA
FREUD’S TRIPARTITE THEORY)
• To psychoanalysts, personality is primarily
UNCONSCIOUS, beyond our normal
awareness. The UNCONSCIOUS MIND is a
network of stored, often repressed ideas,
experiences and feelings that affect our
conscious thoughts and our behaviors. One
focus of psychoanalysis is to bring these
awarenesses to our conscious mind through the
process of PSYCHOANALYSIS so that we can
gain control over our behavior.
PSYCHODYNAMIC MODEL (AKA
FREUD’S TRIPARTITE THEORY)
• Freud postulated three levels of awareness, the
CONSCIOUS MIND, the portion of the mind of which we
are presently aware, the PRECONSCIOUS MIND, the
portion of the mind that contains information that is not
presently conscious but may easily be brought to
consciousness and the UNCONSCIOUS MIND wherein
are stored primitive instinctual motives (id) and
memories, ideas and experiences that have been
repressed.
• Freud likened the mind to an ICEBERG, the relatively
small portion that we see above the water representing
the CONSCIOUS MIND.
PSYCHODYNAMIC MODEL (AKA
FREUD’S TRIPARTITE THEORY)
• Bordering the tip of the iceberg, the conscious
mind, lies the larger portion partially submerged,
the PRECONSCIOUS which is able to come to
conscious awareness but normally lies hidden
beneath the surface.
• The largest part lies deeply submerged, far from
the conscious mind, the reservoir of
UNCONSCIOUS drives, memories and
repressions. The UNCONSCIOUS is filled with
early fears, memories and childhood conflicts,
fears and desires of the ID and threatening
material the ego chooses to repress.
Freud’s Unconscious
PSYCHODYNAMIC MODEL (AKA
FREUD’S TRIPARTITE THEORY)
• As the UNCONSCIOUS is the largest part of the
mind it tends to be a large factor in the causation
and motivation of human behavior according to
psychoanalysts. It is important to make the
UNCONSCIOUS CONSCIOUS so one may
control and direct ones own behavior rather than
be DETERMINED by early childhood
experiences and the raw animalistic nature of
the ID.
FREUD’S TRIPARTITE THEORY
• SIGMUND FREUD theorized that the
origin of personality lies in the
PSYCHODYNAMIC INTERPLAY of three
forces in the personality - the ID, EGO and
SUPEREGO.
ID
SUPER-EGO
EGO
The ID
• The ID is present at birth and is instinctual.
The energy of the ID, the LIBIDO,
operates according to the PLEASURE
PRINCIPLE. The ID is driven to fulfill
needs and desires and to bring pleasure
and satisfaction to the organism. The id is
largely UNCONSCIOUS, AMORAL AND
INSTINCTUAL. The goal of the ID is to
relieve tension and increase pleasure and
satisfaction.
The ID
The ID
• In the ID lie the polarities of LIFE DRIVES called
EROS and DEATH DRIVES and instincts
(THANATOS). The ID may seek pleasure
through life energy (LIBIDO) in constructive
ways or through the destructive aggressive
death energy (MORTIDO). Children may happily
seek satisfaction of their desires in seemingly
constructive ways until someone denies them
pleasure or satisfaction. Then children may have
"temper tantrums" and release animalistic
aggression, rage and destruction.
The ID
• As adults we also may find an inner
conflict between destructive desires to
drink or smoke and our instinctual desire
for pleasure. Often we enjoy risk-taking or
"sensation-seeking" activities that threaten
our life. We may gamble with money or
with challenging destructive relationships.
We may become bored when our needs
are satisfied.
The SUPEREGO
The SUPEREGO
• The SUPEREGO is the JUDICIAL
BRANCH of the personality, the moral arm
of our personality that tells us what is right
and wrong. The SUPEREGO operates by
the MORALITY PRINCIPLE and contains
LEARNED prescriptions for behavior. It
includes values we have INTROJECTED
from our parents because we loved and
IDENTIFIED with them or because we
feared EXTERNAL PUNISHMENT.
The SUPEREGO
• The SUPEREGO also includes an internalized
punisher, the CONSCIENCE, developed in early
childhood. The CONSCIENCE controls through
GUILT about real or imagined acts. The EGOIDEAL, an image of what we should be, derived
from the expectations of others learned at home,
church, school or from social standards
expressed in media such as movies and
television, also lies in the SUPEREGO.
SUPEREGO
The SUPEREGO
• The SUPEREGO is generally in
INTRAPSYCHIC CONFLICT with the ID. The
SUPEREGO chastises the ID, questioning
motives creating "moral anxiety" and trying to
rein in the lustful, selfish, wild impulsive desires
of the ID. The SUPEREGO is incessantly talking
to us in our mind and is sometimes called the
INTERNALIZED PARENT as it tells us what to
do, judges our guilt and administers punishment
for our transgressions.
The SUPEREGO
• Some persons have an overdeveloped
restrictive SUPEREGO that controls the
personality. If dominated by the SUPEREGO the
person may become rigid, moralistic, neurotic,
repressed and depressed leading a robot-like
controlled existence. Since the SUPEREGO is
LEARNED, some persons may not develop a
CONSCIENCE and may become cold, uncaring,
selfish, aggressive ANTISOCIAL
PERSONALITIES.
The EGO
• The EGO is the only part of the personality that
can ACT and must deal with REALITY and
attempt to MAXIMIZE PLEASURE for the ID
while AVOIDING PUNISHMENT AND GUILT
from the SUPEREGO. The EGO experiences
NEUROTIC ANXIETY from the ID that insists
upon satisfaction and pleasure and MORAL
ANXIETY from the SUPEREGO that demands
that we be good, do what is right and noble and
strive for perfection.
The EGO
The EGO
• The ego responds to the REALITY
PRINCIPLE, attempting to decide what
you will do. The EGO may try to
ACTIVELY COPE with the anxiety and
formulate a conscious plan or
DEFENSIVELY COPE by using
unconscious DEFENSE MECHANISMS to
deny or distort reality to reduce tension
and anxiety in the psyche.
EGO—DEFENSE MECHANISMS
FREUD’S TRIPARTITE THEORY
BEHAVIORISM & LEARNING
• BEHAVIORISTS believe that personality is
shaped by operant conditioning principles. When
we receive positive reinforcement such as
attention or praise for a behavior, we are likely to
repeat that behavior. We will avoid negative
situations becoming negatively reinforced for
avoiding, reducing or terminating the painful
stimulus. Over time these responses become
HABIT PATTERNS OR RESPONSE
TENDENCIES, known as personality by
behaviorists.
Reinforcement
BEHAVIORISM & LEARNING
• Are we then only a sum of our previous
experiences, a set of BEHAVIORAL
TENDENCIES shaped by others? Are we
"programmed puppets", determined by our
ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORIES? Is our
personality LEARNED, a product of our
past conditioning? Is our behavior
CONTROLLED by the CONSEQUENCES
of that behavior rather than by our own
FREE WILL?
BEHAVIORISM & LEARNING
• B.F. SKINNER, the father of operant
conditioning, believes all these
propositions are correct and he believes
we can explain any behavior if we have
sufficient knowledge of environmental
histories of reinforcement. He proposed a
SCIENCE OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR that
would apply the LAWS OF HUMAN
BEHAVIOR to predict and control human
behavior.
BEHAVIORISM & LEARNING
• If, he argued, we are all controlled by the world
in which we live, we can use ENVIRONMENTAL
ENGINEERING to reinforce values, beliefs and
behaviors that would benefit the individual as
well as society. He proposed that we use
BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE in schools, homes,
hospitals and relationships to "shape" welladjusted, happy, productive persons through
proper rewards and reinforcement of desired
behaviors.
SHAPING
BEHAVIORISM & LEARNING
• Skinner and other behaviorists believe all
behavior is LEARNED, DETERMINED by what
we have learned from our ENVIRONMENT.
They emphasize the importance of
ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS. They believe that
the environment may shape normal or abnormal
behavior but emphasize that "There is no such
thing as an abnormal person, only a normal
person in an abnormal environment."
Environmental Factors
BEHAVIORISM & LEARNING
• Skinner's operant approach to understanding
behavior through analyzing the interactions
between behavior and environmental
reinforcement is known as the FUNCTIONAL
ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR. Skinner analyzes
stimuli that proceed the response and
consequences following the behavior to discover
the CAUSE-EFFECT RELATIONSHIP. By
changing the reinforcers in the environment,
Skinner believed he could change the behavior,
a therapeutic process known as BEHAVIOR
MODIFICATION.
BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION
BEHAVIORISM & LEARNING
• The COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL APPROACH
emphasizes classical as well as operant conditioning
and focuses on the importance of learned thoughts or
cognitions as important variables in shaping personality
patterns. One example is JULIAN ROTTER'S theory on
LOCUS OF CONTROL. He proposes that it is our belief
about a situation or experience that affects behavior. We
either believe we are in control of our fate (INTERNAL
LOCUS OF CONTROL) or that we are controlled by
external forces (EXTERNAL LOCUS OF CONTROL) that
determines how successfully we will react to situations.
Through our experience we LEARN a SET OF
EXPECTANCIES that then determine our behavioral
response.
Julian Rotter
BEHAVIORISM & LEARNING
• COGNITIVE SOCIAL-LEARNING
THEORISTS stress learned expectations
that may in turn affect the environment.
BANDURA viewed the COGNITION, the
belief of SELF-EFFICACY, a learned
expectation of success, as pivotal to
success and happiness in life. Our
EXPECTANCIES about the world learned
from our previous experience begin to
shape our experience of the world.
SOCIAL INTERACTION
BEHAVIORISM & LEARNING
• SOCIAL-LEARNING THEORISTS also believe
we LEARN behavior from SIGNIFICANT
OTHERS in our lives. We MODEL and IMITATE
our parents, teachers or other admired persons.
We incorporate their values and beliefs into our
own personality. Behaviorists have given us
many examples and explanations as to how our
behavior is shaped and maintained by our
environment and persuade us that much of our
personality may be a product of our conditioning
and learning.
Modeling and Imitation
Humanism
• The SELF is central to personality to
humanistic theorist Carl Rogers. We
perceive the world and our experience
through our ideas about the SELF, our
SELF-CONCEPT. Rogers sees the SELFCONCEPT as core to understanding
human behavior and personality because
we "ACT ACCORDING TO OUR SELFCONCEPT", be it positive or negative.
Humanism
• Indeed Rogers feels we create our own
"perceptual reality" and live in our own
"subjective" PHENOMENOLOGICAL
WORLD that we create from our
experiences and feelings about our self.
To understand the PERSONALITY we
must enter into the SUBJECTIVE WORLD
of a person and begin to EMPATHIZE or
understand the person from their own
subjective reality.
It’s A Beautiful World
Humanism
• Humanistic psychologists believe that man is
essentially GOOD AND RATIONAL. He is
motivated from birth to actualize his SELF and is
innately driven to SELF-ACTUALIZE his or her
potential. Given a nurturing environment in
which people give the child the unconditional
love, respect and acceptance necessary for
growth called UNCONDITIONAL POSITIVE
REGARD, the child will grow toward
enhancement of his unique self.
HUMANISM
Humanism
• PERSONALITY to Rogers is the unique
expression of each person's SELFACTUALIZING TENDENCY as it unfolds in the
person's PERCEPTUAL REALITY. Personality
reflects our feelings, beliefs and attitudes about
ourselves, our SELF-CONCEPT. If a person's
central motivating force, the drive for SELFACTUALIZATION, is unimpeded, the person will
choose experiences that enhance growth and
lead to actualization of potential and SELFFULFILLMENT.
SELF-ACTUALIZED
Humanism
• Given UNCONDITIONAL POSITIVE
REGARD during development the child
develops into a FULLY FUNCTIONING
PERSON who is spontaneous, open,
flexible, creative and loving. Fully
functioning persons are CONGRUENT,
freely expressing their true feelings. Their
outside behaviors are CONGRUENT with
their inside feelings so they are honest
and genuine in their approach to the world.
Humanism
• Unfortunately the growth-process is often
thwarted. Instead of receiving UNCONDITIONAL
POSITIVE REGARD the child experiences
CONDITIONAL POSITIVE REGARD. Instead of
acceptance, the developing self experiences
CONDITIONS OF WORTH, ways a child must
behave to obtain approval. In Roger's
personality theory CONDITIONAL POSITIVE
REGARD is the cause of poor self-image and
maladjustment.
UNCONDITIONAL POSITIVE
REGARD
Humanism
• Parental criticism and punishment thwarts the
developing self and stunts natural growth. The child now
must channel natural growth energies toward
DEFENSIVE MECHANISMS. He learns to withdraw
from, fight or accept the criticism. Any method he
chooses damages his sense of self-worth. He uses
elaborate defense mechanisms to defend against the
hurt, anxiety and tension. Instead of being genuine the
child learns to hide behind masks and play roles or to
simply withhold true feelings. Rogers theorizes that the
child may even in time lose his or her sense of self,
conforming and adapting to the prescriptions of
behaviors called CONDITIONS OF WORTH to win
external acceptance.
REAL DEFENSE MECHANISMS
Humanism
• Negative self-concepts, emotional disturbance and
mental disorders are products of CONDITIONAL
POSITIVE REGARD. The person becomes maladjusted
and INCONGRUENT as he loses touch with the self
inside. His behaviors on the outside are INCONGRUENT
with his feelings on the inside. Humanistic therapies
center on assisting the person's honest SELFEXPLORATION in an atmosphere of UNCONDITIONAL
POSITIVE REGARD, ACCEPTANCE, RESPECT AND
EMPATHY in hopes the person can rediscover the SELF.
MAKING STRANGERS OF
OURSELVES
Humanism
• Rogers believes that in a climate of trust
and unconditional positive regard, people
can begin to drop their masks, facades
and ego defenses and become
increasingly real and congruent. When
they begin to rediscover their real
AUTHENTIC self the self-actualizing
tendency will allow them to grow toward
realization of their full potential, a flowering
of their sacred unique self.
Humanism
• Rogers opposes behaviorists with their use of rewards
and punishments to shape behavior. Rogers argues
reinforcements may lead to CONDITIONS OF WORTH,
wherein a child believe his worth depends on his
displaying "right" and "proper" attitudes and behaviors.
Children need the approval of others, POSITIVE
REGARD, and will distort perceptions and deny real
feelings to conform to outside standards of behavior.
Negative evaluations lead to a NEGATIVE SELFCONCEPT. A person begins to doubt his self, his abilities
and his worth in the world, excessive "punishment"
indeed.
PUNISHMENT
Humanism
• The humanistic theory of personality
development has led to the establishment of
"free" schools and to courses such as "Parent
Effectiveness Training" that help parents see
their children as individual special growing
personalities with legitimate feelings, needs and
worth. Rather than using control techniques ,
such courses teach skills such as EMPATHY,
communicating that you understand the child's
feelings, and ACCEPTANCE of FEELINGS
rather than evaluation and negative
JUDGEMENT.
Parent Effectiveness Training
My Father’s Version of Parent
Effectiveness Training
Humanism
• Critics say humanistic psychology is not a
personality theory, but a philosophy of life. The
HUMANISTIC VIEW emphasizes growth,
freedom, choice, creativity other concepts that
are difficult to measure, yet no one can deny the
influence of humanistic psychologists in turning
our focus from our animal nature to our highest
human nature, from a Freudian focus on mental
illness to a focus on psychological health and
personality growth.
Humanism
• There are also those who argue it is too
“phony” or “fake” to be taken seriously.
Humanism
• MASLOW agreed with Rogers, stating in 1968,
• "To oversimplify the matter somewhat, it is as if
Freud supplied to us the sick half of psychology
and we must now fill it out with the healthy half."
• To answer the critics who said that humanistic
theories lacked scientific evidence, Maslow
spent his life researching "SELF-ACTUALIZED"
persons and identified personality and
behavioral characteristics of these models of
psychological health and well-being.
Humanism
• Maslow found his self-actualized subjects
were highly driven by growth-oriented
METANEEDS. They sought truth and
knowledge, meaning and depth to life and
beauty and growth. They actively pursued
fulfillment of their potential and had the
following distinctive characteristics.
Fulfillment of Their Potential
Humanism
• In touch with their SELF, they were
spontaneous, natural, autonomous and
expressed themselves creatively. They
possessed empathy for others and identified
with mankind as a whole, often dedicating their
lives to assisting others with problems. They did
not distort reality but perceived reality accurately
taking great pleasure in the basic experiences of
life like sunsets. They were at peace with
themselves, others and the world demonstrating
great love, compassion and acceptance toward
others.
Self-Actualized Person
Humanism
• From his studies of self-actualizing
persons Maslow demonstrated that man
can become a FULLY FUNCTIONING
PERSONALITY and achieve his or her
unique potential. Perhaps the goal of our
existence is growth, happiness and SELFFULFILLMENT; perhaps the meaning in
life is the UNFOLDING OF THE SELF.
MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF
NEEDS
• Maslow believed that SELFACTUALIZATION was a NEED, the
highest need in a hierarchy of human
needs. Self-actualization needs are
METANEEDS or GROWTH-ORIENTED
NEEDS including uniqueness, aliveness,
playfulness, truth, beauty, perfection,
creativity, joy and goodness.
MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF
NEEDS
• However these growth-oriented metaneeds
cannot be satisfied until lower needs are
satisfied. The lowest most animalistic needs are
PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS for food, water and
physical satisfaction. The next level in Maslow's
HIERARCHY OF NEEDS contains our needs for
SAFETY AND SECURITY that must be satisfied
before we can focus on higher levels. Threats to
one's safety or security can trigger fear and
animalistic responses of aggression. Imagined
fears in places such as dark alleys can also
MOTIVATE primitive escape responses.
Physiological Needs
PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS
SAFETY AND SECURITY
MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF
NEEDS
• The third level of Maslow's hierarchy includes needs we feel for
LOVE AND BELONGINGNESS, human affection and friendships
that give us psychological security and a feeling of connectedness
and worth. The fourth level includes EGO-ESTEEM NEEDS, our
needs for status, recognition, respect and admiration from others. To
feel self-pride and self-esteem we try to achieve prestige, status and
influence over others.
• The four levels of BASIC NEEDS- physiological, safety, love, selfesteem - are DEFICIENCY NEEDS. METANEEDS, growth-oriented
striving, cannot be actualized until the DEFICIENCY NEEDS are
satisfied. Maslow believed that the fulfillment of growth-oriented selfactualization needs were crucial to psychological health and well
being. When our metaneeds are not fulfilled we may become
alienated, hostile, depressed, cynical, manipulative and
maladjusted. The key to psychological health was satisfaction of
lower needs so that one could SELF-ACTUALIZE one's potential
and FULFILL the SELF. As Maslow stated,
Psychological Needs
Love and Belongingness
Self-Esteem
MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF
NEEDS
TRAIT THEORIES
• TRAIT THEORISTS argue personality can
best be understood through identifying
personality TRAITS, enduring
characteristics that organize and control
behavior across situations. Traits are
characteristics such as reserved, trusting,
controlled, tense, serious and submissive
that affect behavior.
TRAIT THEORIES
• TRAIT THEORISTS believe if we identify
and measure the traits that underlie
behavior we can PREDICT BEHAVIOR.
They argue that this is the most scientific
approach as the goal of science is
prediction. Trait theorists develop tests to
measure traits that may affect work
behaviors, marriage relationships,
abnormal behavior or any other behavior
that psychologists might want to predict.
Types of Traits
TRAIT THEORIES
• Cattell developed a list of TRAIT FACTORS that he
believed were central to understanding human
personality and resulting behaviors. He used a statistical
technique of FACTOR ANALYSIS to reduce thousands of
words used to describe personality into thirty basic
SOURCE TRAITS and a test, the 16 PF, to measure the
most important 16 trait factors that were the SOURCE of
behavior. Although critics question whether we indeed
have stable factors that predict our behavior, such trait
tests are widely used to select candidates for hiring or
promotion in the corporate world.
The Trick of Personality
• The trick of personality is to change that
which you can when it needs to be
changed, and realize that personality is
constantly evolving.